Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

The communications unit is scrupulously apolitical. It is a Civil Service unit which provides a service to Government in its extended departmental sense, that is, to Ministers, Ministers of State and a large range of officials across Departments. It has not moved into Internet monitoring or similar services. It focuses purely on the national media and one or two of the bigger local stations and is limited to that. It has no role whatever in any of the policy areas, or in drafting or speeches.

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